Podcast: The Senior Man
In this episode, host Jeff Rothmeier talks ventilation and firefighting with Jeff Shupe and Bob Pressler.
Bob Pressler
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CHURCH FIRES
As responding firefighters, one of the most difficult fires you may respond to is a fire in an older church or other house of worship
DRILLS
Keeping your department well trained and abreast of new evolutions is a very difficult task. In career departments, drill schedules can be based around work schedules-so many tours per month mean so many subjects.
THE HEADFIRST LADDER SLIDE: THREE METHODS
Since the first days of the American fire service, the fire service has either embraced change or fought it with intensity. Programs, ideas, and innovations have come and gone. New ones have flourished, and old ones have been resurrected.
More Bob Pressler
WHAT SMOKE CONDITIONS TELL YOU
You are responding as the first-due company to an unknown type of fire. The fire is in a neighborhood of medium-size, one-family dwellings. The driver slows the apparatus to check addresses as you get closer to the area. A short distance down the block, a small group of people are waving frantically to get your attention. You proceed to their location and pull up in front of a 212-story frame house. Light smoke is showing from several different areas of the home.
TIPS AND TOOLS FOR TOP-FLOOR FIRES
As the truck company ap-proaches the fireground, the firefighters prepare to go to work. Not sure of the exact type of building to which they are responding, they start to assemble the standard tool assignment. Being a four-member company, they know that the type of building will have an impact on their tool assignments.
BASEMENT FIRES
As the incoming chief officer, what strategies would you employ to try to stop this fire, and what building features will hinder your operation?
TWO-MINUTE DRILLS
Photo 1. Heavy smoke pushes from the attic of this 212-story wood-frame private house. The fire, which started on a lower floor, has spread upward into all levels of the building. The fire on the lower floors has been extinguished, but operations in the attic must now start. What factors should the IC take into account before committing companies into the attic area?
EXPOSURE IDENTIFICATION BY BOB PRESSLER
Proper communications on the fireground are vital to the incident commander. Information concerning exposures, fire location in the building, direction of fire spread, the need for additional companies, and so on will help the IC make proper fireground decisions.
WINTER FIREFIGHTING OPERATIONS
Proper investigation at a seemingly routine response and the subsequent actions taken averted a tragedy at a supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, on January 9, 1996.